Oliver Benjamin
you’re probably so zombified that no one in the real world believes
anything you say anyway.”
“I see. So what is this big conspiracy they’re planning? They’re
going to overthrow the Indian government?”
Yippee shook his head grimly. “Hardly.” His leer had turned to
a frown. “They’re planning to destroy the earth.”
“What?Come on!”
“Rippy,” he said patiently, “I didn’t expect you to believe this.
The Omniraja has managed to get a bunch of plutonium from the
Indian military through some slip in their bureaucracy—India’s one
of the few countries in the world with nuclear bombs. You already
know what a little baksheeshcan do in this country and the Omniraja
is a covert billionaire. Anyway, this is his plan in a nutshell, and let
me tell you, that’s where it belongs, because it’s nuts: Soon, maybe in
a few months, maybe in a few years, the Omniraja is going to deliver
an order to detonate a bunch of nuclear warheads on the polar
icecaps. All it needs to do is get a little warmer up there, and next
thing you know the glaciers melt, the seas rise and a flood wipes out
most of the world as we know it.”
What could I say? I gaped at him. Despite weeks of trying to
believe all sorts of extraordinary bullshit, I knew this was way beyond
my powers.
“Yes, don’t look at me like I’m an idiot just because I look like
I’m an idiot. It’s true, I swear! The only safe place is going to be in the
mountains, and from the information I’ve gathered, there’s an
enormous complex hidden in the Himalayas in which the Omniraja
plans to move his subjects and then gradually re-populate the planet
with a “perfect” society of his own creation. This is the Great Fast
you’ve heard him mention, man, the purging of the toxins of the
world.”
I played with the hemline of my dress. It was already becoming
stained and threadbare in this rough country. “How did you find all
this out, and how do you know it’s true?”
“I’m on the inside, mate! You know that fabulous redhead that
welcomes everyone on the first day? Well, I somehow managed to
make her fall in love with me. I’m the first guy she’d met here with
balls I think. Anyway, she hinted at the “The Purge” as they call it,
and so I decided to take advantage of her to hunt a little deeper. I
convinced her to let me make love to her in the Omniraja’s office and
right before we did it I slipped her a sleeping pill so she’d pass out.
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